Childrens Sermon Service

When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. (vv. 9-12)

Object: A piece of white cloth large enough to wrap around your body. I cut a piece about three feet wide and six feet long from an old sheet. You can use the same piece of cloth as the object for all four messages of Holy Week.

NOTE: I begin each of the four messages with the same explanation since some may only use one of the messages. However, If you do use more than the first of these four messages, you might begin each following message by talking briefly about the cloth and remembering the previous message as a great way to tie the events of the week together.

NOTE: For this message, I usually begin with the cloth hidden behind me or just lying on the floor.

Hello, everyone! Are you ready for today’s story? (Let them respond.) Great. But first I have a question for you. Can anyone tell me what is special about this week? (Let them respond.) This is the end of the week we sometimes call Holy Week, isn’t it? It is special because this week reminds us of the things that happened during the last week that Jesus lived with his disciples and taught everyone about God. Several things happen this week, and some of them were pretty scary, but something very, very special happened at the end of the week, didn’t it? (Let them respond.) Let me tell you what special things we want to remember today.

This is Easter Sunday. Does anyone know why we call it Easter Sunday? (Let them respond.) Well, you know what? Our word “Easter” comes from the name of an old English month that we now call “April.” In the early days of the church, they called it Paschal Month, because of the Passover celebration. What we call today may be kind of strange, but what happened on Easter Sunday is really special.

The disciples had been hiding someplace ever since they had put Jesus’ body in the tomb on Friday afternoon. They were still afraid of the Romans, but they needed to go back to the tomb to finish doing the things they were supposed to do for a proper burial. So, early Sunday morning, a few of the women got up really early and went to the tomb to start working. But when they got there, what did they see? (Let them respond.) The big stone door of the tomb was open. They went up really slowly and stepped inside and what did they see? (Let them respond.) Yes, Jesus’ body was not there. The tomb was empty. Well, that really scared them. They wondered what had happened. Had the soldiers come back and stolen the body? Was this a trap and were the soldiers now going to catch them? When they came back out they saw two people standing by the door of the tomb. They didn’t look like soldiers, but the women were really afraid of them. Then one of the men said, “He is not here; he is risen. Just like he told you.” Then the women remembered that Jesus had told them about this one day when they were back in Galilee. They got all excited and ran as fast as they could run to tell the disciples and the others what had happened.

When the women told the others what they observed, they did not believe them and thought they were being foolish. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb to see for himself. When he got there he went inside the tomb and all that he saw was the cloth (show the cloth) they had wrapped Jesus’ body in when they buried him on Friday.

The mean leaders had killed Jesus, but they had not stopped God from changing the things God wanted to change. The mean leaders thought they had won, but they lost. From now on, their rules were not the most important rules. From now on, the most important rule for everyone to follow was that new rule Jesus had given them on Maundy Thursday; to love and take care of each other and serve each other no matter who they were, because God loves everyone.

Let’s all pray together and ask God to help us remember how much God loves every one of us no matter who we are, what we have, or where we are from, and ask God to help us remember to do the things God wants us to do to take care of each other.

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us. Please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.